Gov. Martin O’Malley announced that the Board of Public Works (BPW) has approved more transportation improvements to be funded by President Barack Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

With the approval of two contracts totaling nearly $20 million, the Maryland Transit Administration will soon begin improvements to the Baltimore Metro Subway by overhauling train wheel assemblies and installing a new public address system at stations. These two projects together will support a total of 600 jobs.

“To create an environment where more people choose transit, we must make the experience as reliable and customer friendly as possible,” said O’Malley. “These investments will help accomplish that goal while putting people to work and furthering our economic recovery.”

The $15.2 million contract to overhaul the Metro Subway train wheel assemblies was awarded to TTA Systems LLC. The other contract approved by BPW is a $4.1 million project to replace the public address system and signs currently in use at Metro stations. The new audio and electronic message signs will be used to alert passengers of approaching trains as well as relay service updates and safety messages. The contract to upgrade the public address system and signs was awarded to International Display Systems Inc. Construction on both these contracts will get under way this summer.

Other ongoing efforts include new MARC locomotives and passenger coaches, gradual replacement of all buses with hybrid-electric buses and increased funding for the local transit systems statewide.